Amygdalar Function Reflects Common Individual Differences in Emotion and Pain Regulation Success

Lapate, Regina C.; Lee, Hyejeen; Salomons, Tim V.; Reekum, Carien M. van; Greischar, Lawrence L.; Davidson, Richard J.

doi:10.1162/jocn_a_00125

Cited by 52 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Consistent with the role of amygdala in negative affect, we observed reduced activation in amygdala when individuals perceived control and a positive relationship between amygdala activation and state anxiety change. The amygdala has also been demonstrated to underlie reappraisal of both pain and other elicitors of negative affect within individuals (Lapate et al, 2012). Our finding that increased connectivity of amygdala and vlPFC was associated with reduced anxiety when participants perceived control is consistent with previous observations linking interactions between these regions in regulating negative affect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Emotion Regulation Circuitry Underlying Anxiolytic Effects of Perceived Control over Pain

Salomons

Nusslock

Detloff

et al. 2015

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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Anxiolytic effects of perceived control have been observed across species. In humans, neuroimaging studies have suggested that perceived control and cognitive reappraisal reduce negative affect through similar mechanisms. An important limitation of extant neuroimaging studies of perceived control in terms of directly testing this hypothesis, however, is the use of within subjects-designs, which confound participants' affective response to controllable and uncontrollable stress. To compare neural and affective responses when participants were exposed to either uncontrollable or controllable stress, two groups of participants received an identical series of stressors (thermal pain stimuli). One group (“controllable”) was led to believe they had behavioral control over the pain stimuli while another (“uncontrollable”) believed they had no control. Controllable pain was associated with decreased state anxiety, decreased activation in amygdala and increased activation in nucleus accumbens (NAcc). In participants who perceived control over the pain, reduced state anxiety was associated with increased functional connectivity between each of these regions and ventral lateral/ventral medial prefrontal cortex (PFC). The location of PFC findings is consistent with regions found to be critical for the anxiolytic effects of perceived control in rodents. Furthermore, interactions observed between PFC and both amygdala and NAcc are remarkably similar to neural mechanisms of emotion regulation through reappraisal in humans. These results suggest that perceived control reduces negative affect through a general mechanism involved in the cognitive regulation of emotion.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Emotion Regulation Circuitry Underlying Anxiolytic Effects of Perceived Control over Pain

Salomons

Nusslock

Detloff

et al. 2015

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

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“…However, the OFC is not the only brain region associated with shaping pain perception. Using a thermal pain paradigm, Lapate and colleagues showed that amygdala activity varies as a function of pain regulation success (Lapate et al, 2012). In addition, suppression of the startle reflex, an autonomic reflex that is dependent on the amygdala (Davis et al, 2010), has been observed during the cold pressor task, suggesting that amygdala activity is regulated while participants are forced to endure acute cold pain (Tavernor et al, 2000).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, the degree of activation in the amygdala has been associated with subjective pain ratings (Bornhovd et al, 2002). In addition, successful pain regulation has been shown to alter activity in the amygdala (Lapate et al, 2012). Stressor-related amygdala deactivation likely depends on frontal cortical regions, which shape nociceptive processing through both direct and indirect influences on descending inhibitory pain circuits (Hutchison et al 1999; Lenz et al 1998; Xie et al, 2009, for a review).…”

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Amygdala functional connectivity is reduced after the cold pressor task

Clewett

Schoeke

Mather

2013

Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci

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The amygdala forms a crucial link between central pain and stress systems. There is much evidence that psychological stress affects amygdala activity, but it is less clear how painful stressors influence subsequent amygdala functional connectivity. In the present study, we used pulsed arterial spin labeling (PASL) to investigate differences in healthy male adults’ resting-state amygdala functional connectivity following a cold pressor versus control task, with the stressor and control conditions conducted on different days. During the period of peak cortisol response to acute stress (approximately fifteen to thirty minutes after stressor onset), participants were asked to rest for six minutes with their eyes closed during a PASL scanning sequence. The cold pressor task led to reduced resting-state functional connectivity between the amygdalae and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (VMPFC), which occurred irrespective of cortisol release. The stressor also induced greater inverse connectivity between the left amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC), a brain region implicated in the down-regulation of amygdala responsivity. Furthermore, the degree of post-stressor left amygdala decoupling with the lateral OFC varied according to self-reported pain intensity during the cold pressor task. These findings indicate that the cold pressor task alters amygdala interactions with prefrontal and ACC regions 15–30 minutes after the stressor, and that these altered functional connectivity patterns are related to pain perception rather than cortisol feedback.

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“…Among healthy individuals, downregulating negative emotions through reappraisal (Lapate et al 2011; Hampton et al 2015) and acceptance (Braams et al 2012; Kohl et al 2013), and upregulating positive emotions through positive mood induction (Finan and Garland 2015) have been associated with the ability to decrease experimentally-induced pain and pain-related cardiovascular responses. In contrast to these adaptive strategies, maladaptive forms of emotion regulation (e.g., suppressing negative emotions) have been shown to increase acute pain induced in the laboratory (Quartana et al 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deficits in autonomic indices of emotion regulation and reward processing associated with prescription opioid use and misuse

et al. 2016

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Rationale Prescription opioid misuse and high dose opioid use may result in allostatic dysregulation of hedonic brain circuitry, leading to reduced emotion regulation capacity. In particular, opioid misuse may blunt the ability to experience and upregulate positive affect from natural rewards. Objectives The purpose of this study was to examine associations between opioid use/misuse and autonomic indices of emotion regulation capability in a sample of chronic pain patients receiving prescription opioid pharmacotherapy. Methods Chronic pain patients taking long-term opioid analgesics (N = 40) completed an emotion regulation task while heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded, as well as self-report measures of opioid misuse, craving, pain severity, and emotional distress. Based on a validated cut-point on the Current Opioid Misuse Measure, participants were grouped as opioid misusers or non-misusers. Opioid misuse status and morphine equivalent daily dose (MEDD) were examined as predictors of HRV and self-reports of emotion regulation. Results Opioid misusers exhibited significantly less HRV during positive and negative emotion regulation, and significantly less positive affect, than non-misusers, after controlling for confounders including pain severity and emotional distress. MEDD was inversely associated with positive emotion regulation efficacy. Conclusion Findings implicate the presence of reward processing deficits among chronic pain patients with opioid-misusing behaviors, and opioid dosage was associated with deficient emotion regulation, suggesting the presence of compromised top-down cognitive control over bottom-up hedonic processes. Emotion regulation among opioid misusers may represent an important treatment target.

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Amygdalar Function Reflects Common Individual Differences in Emotion and Pain Regulation Success

Cited by 52 publications

References 45 publications

Neural Emotion Regulation Circuitry Underlying Anxiolytic Effects of Perceived Control over Pain

Neural Emotion Regulation Circuitry Underlying Anxiolytic Effects of Perceived Control over Pain

Amygdala functional connectivity is reduced after the cold pressor task

Deficits in autonomic indices of emotion regulation and reward processing associated with prescription opioid use and misuse

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